Look and Read was a BBC Televisionprogramme for primary schools, aimed at improving children's literacy skills.[1] The programme presents fictional stories in a serial format, the first of which was broadcast in 1967 and the most recent in 2004, making it the longest running nationally broadcast programme for schools in the United Kingdom. The series remains popular among school children.

The first programmes for schools in Britain were broadcast in 1957. Early material was mostly aimed at secondary school pupils and seen as a convenient method of demonstration in subjects such as science and geography. In the early 1960s, there was a lot interest in the medium as a way of educating children with certain learning difficulties and in 1962 the BBC produced Television Club which presented stories in a drama serial format. The success of this format made some look into the possibilities of using the technique on programmes for primary school children.

Claire Chovil, a former teacher and children's radio producer, began to research the possibility of bringing stories to television which would meet teachers' requirements to assist them in providing children with word recognition skills. She persuaded the BBC to allow her to produce two experimental serials for their schools programme Merry-Go-Round. Each episode of the serials would contain a limited vocabulary allowing teachers, who were given notes for the series, to present specific lessons with each episode in mind. The story in each episode was divided into two instalments by a teaching segment which gave the children material to read and animated instructions on how to read it. Following the success of the two serials, "Fishing For Fivers" (1965) and "Tom, Pat and Friday" (1966), Look and Read began production in 1966.

Although originally produced for the series Merry-Go-Round, "Bob and Carol Look for Treasure" was broadcast as the first Look and Read story in the spring of 1967. The serial took the format, which the programme would continue for many years, of each episode's story being divided into two instalments with an educational section in the middle to teach children the relevant material. Teachers were also provided with story books, or "pupil pamphlets", for each serial, from which they could provide their pupils the story as well as exercises and games. The plots of the stories were written to appeal to children, initially inspired by adventure serials, and often featured puzzles for the characters to solve using their reading skills, which was also reflected in the material given to pupils. Each serial was also written with a limited vocabulary in mind, each of the keywords paced through the piece a certain number of times so they held a certain relevance above other words.

During the 1970s the programme began to bring in many new elements for a new generation of viewers. Popular new educational songs were introduced which would remain until into the 90s as well as the character Wordy (see below). In the 80s and early 90s the plots also started to contain contemporary issues such as pollution. Towards the latter part of the 90s the programme began to steer away from some of the elements of the past by, in some, removing songs and combining teaching elements with the story segment of the programme. The producers also began making use of the internet as a teaching aid for the programme, allowing children to access games and material through a dedicated website, although the BBC have since removed the sites due to dwindling use, to the dismay of some teachers.[2]

For the 1974 serial "Cloud Burst", the new producer Sue Weeks created the character Wordy. A large orange character, vaguely resembling a 'golfball' type element from a contemporary typewriter of the age, with letters on his body, the character featured in the teaching section of the programme, introducing himself as Mr. Watchword, or "Wordy" for short. The character, voiced by actor Charles Collingwood knew all about grammar and words and taught how to use and recognise them. With a high-pitched voice and distinctive appearance the character has since become one of the most remembered aspects of the programme, and last appeared in the 1992 story "Sky Hunter II".

Some of the most memorable moments of the programme were its educational songs. Each story had its own individual theme tune, many of which are well remembered among fans of the programme. Each teaching segment also featured many songs with animations, featuring characters like Dog Detective, which were used regularly over the show's history. Many of the lyrics, such as the 'Clue Song' with Dog Detective, the Karate Chopper and 'Bill the Brickie', were written by Patricia Farrington, ('Pat Farrington'), who also created the characters. Music for the songs were composed by Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb and Peter Howell of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and most of the songs were sung by Derek Griffiths. Among the most popular were:

"Bill the Brickie", which showed a bricklayer "building" words out of bricks, demonstrating the use of units of words or morphemes (see a clip on YouTube).

"The Punctuation Song", which featured Mr. Big, representing capital letters, and Miss Full Stop Lollypop, representing as in her name, full stops.

"I'm An Apostrophe", which demonstrated the various uses of the apostrophe. It went "I'm an apostrophe, to shorten words you say to me; I'm not a comma, I'm not a full stop, don't put me on the line - I go at the top!"

Probably the most popular, though, was "Magic E", a song originally written in the mid 70s for use in 'Words and Pictures', to demonstrate silent E and the change in pronunciation of preceding vowels — for example, "cap" becomes "cape" with me, "tap" becomes "tape" with me. The song's simple lyrics about changing the words with "magic E" were memorable and simple to learn. The BBC's own "Cult" web page on the programme does not refer to that song with the phrase "Drop That E!" - this is the title of a different song. However they do include the comment "it's about spelling. Honest." [3]

Helen and her brother Dan spot a light in the sky one night that they decide to investigate. Upon discovering a meteorite they meet a young alien child, who they name Peep-Peep. When the alien boy and his father are kidnapped it is up to the two children to follow a trail of clues to find their new friend.

Whilst playing with a toy plane, Jenny Barber and her brother, Tim, meet a scientist, Ram Pandit, who is working on a secret invention. When Ram is kidnapped apparently by the mysterious Man on a Motor Bike who is working for rivals trying to get information on his work, it is up to the children to find them and stop his invention from falling into the wrong hands.

Billy West, a fisherman's grandson, discovers some threatening messages made up from newspaper cuttings. When he and a local journalist go to investigate, they discover that they are targeted at an archaeologist working at a local castle whose life is suddenly under threat because of the long lost local treasure; King Harold's golden armring known as "The King's Dragon".

Three city children go on holiday to the country. Whilst there they meet various people out on the moor, some of whom are involved in pony-rustling. It is up to them to work out who is involved and how to stop it.

"Spuggy" Hilton loves spending time at the local pigeon lofts. When he discovers secret messages being received by pigeon, he suspects Baz, a local pigeon trainer, of being involved in a series of local robberies. Spuggy and his friend Janie must link the clues to try to solve the case.

Three children, Jenny, Amanda and Scott, are painting a mural on a school wall. When a dragon in the painting winks at them they are pulled into the land of Pelamar. The children are asked by this magical world's inhabitants to help them gather together different parts of the mysterious "Veetacore" in order to save their home.

Jeff is a comic book artist whose most popular creation is the super hero Captain Crimson. When Jeff's son Tom and his friend Amy make up the ending to one of the comics it causes Captain Crimson to appear in the real world, forcing the two friends to find ways of hiding the hero whilst he goes on a series of adventures.

Whilst on holiday, twins, Mark and Lisa, discover that their Uncle George is the guardian of an ancient box, which is a gateway to the world of Heritron. When the box is stolen by scientists, George worries that the evil leaders of Heritron are trying to break through to Earth and it's up to the twins to help get the box back.

Josie and Peter get transported into an educational computer game at their school. Once inside they discover that the game is being controlled by the evil Victor Virus who is intent on finding a way to take over the world. The Children, assisted in the real world by Simon and Frances, must stop Virus by completing the various levels of the game.

Whilst on holiday, Ben discovers a Victorian diary written by a girl named Hester. He finds out what growing up was like in the nineteenth century and, as the story goes on, he becomes progressively more involved in Hester's situation.